We Care About the Environment

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You want to buy an Organic Mattress because you want to improve your health and lifestyle.Chances are, you are concerned about saving the Earth as well. Not only are Dormio Organic Mattresses good for you, they are also a good choice for the environment. The following explains why we not only use products that differ from traditional mattress components, but how we also ensure the choices we make are the most environmentally sound.

Traditional Spring Mattresses Your average mattress is an environmental nightmare. First the springs. Steel production is rife with environmental destruction starting with the damage created by mining the iron ore and coal. The production of coke from the coal, and the resulting airborne contaminates, greenhouse gas emissions and destruction of ecosystems through contaminated water is just the tip of the iceberg. For those mattresses that still use a little cotton, see below for more details about the problems with industrial cotton. Last are the synthetic fibres and foams. Other than air and the springs, the vast majority of a traditional mattress is derived from petroleum. From the blended ticking to the polyurethane foams, a mattress is really just a comfy bit of solidified fuel. The impact of petroleum production world wide cannot be understated. Extracting and refining oil has had an arguably larger negative impact on the Earth than any other industrial activity. The rapidly expanding shale industry has devastated many areas previously immune to such environmental degradation. Wars, political instability, human rights abuses are just some of the human costs. Even alleged environmentally friendly foams such as soy based foam are devastating to the ecology through the increased use of GMO crops, the solvents required to extract the oils and the associated water contamination.

What we use Our materials are sourced from suppliers committed to ethical stewardship of their land and resources. Ethical employment practices are also imported and all suppliers are committed to improving living conditions for their workers.

Cotton Most commercial cotton is grown using large amounts of synthetic chemicals to control pests, increase yields and defoliate the crop prior to harvest by machines. These chemicals not only contaminate the soil where the cotton is grown, the runoff has massive impact on the surrounding ecosystems. Since the chemical pesticides target not only the primary pest but often their predators, biodiversity is greatly reduced. Nitrates are heavily used and can transform into nitrous oxide a potent green house gas contributing to Global Warming. Farmers inadequately trained to use these chemicals suffer health problems, early death and pass these problems onto their children. The resulting product is not only laden with chemicals but also contaminated with dirt and debris requiring further chemicals for cleaning. Much of the industrial cotton produced today is also GMO. Our cotton meets the Global Organic Textile Standard. It is grown in a traditional manner without synthetic pesticides, herbicides or defoliants. It is hand picked ensuring a very clean and pure product. It is the highest quality Organic Cotton Fibre available.

Wool Most industrial wool is produced using sheep grazed on fields laden with synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. Large amounts of industrial antibiotics are also used due to the unhygienic conditions in which the sheep are kept. The resulting runoff can destroy surrounding areas and have massive negative impact on animal and human neighbours. The sheep that produce our wool are treated ethically and not subjected to mulesing. They are grazed on fields free from pesticides and fertilizers. In fact, the grazing areas are inappropriate for agricultural use so they remain as pure and organic as they have been for thousands of years. Only hot water and natural soaps are used to clean the wool keeping the environment safe from bleaches and harsh detergents. The finished product meets the Global Organic Textile Standard.

Latex Many so called natural mattresses use a latex core. Unfortunately, a great number of them incorporate latex that has been blended with synthetic latex to reduce costs. Synthetic latex is derived from petroleum and the environmental impact from petroleum production has been discussed in the opening paragraph of the page. 100% natural latex from the rubber tree is all we use in Dormio mattress cores. The trees are gown to Organic standards and the rubber is baked on location. Baking the rubber adjacent to the sap production areas means no extra chemicals are needed to stabilize the milk and the amount of petrol used to transport the material is reduced. Only the rubber sap, air, soap and a small amount of vulcanizing agents are used in the production of our latex. It meets the Global Organic Latex Standard.

The sum it up, you can sleep well not only because your Dormio mattress is the most comfortable you have ever slept on, you can also sleep well knowing you have done your part to help make the world just a little bit better for the generations to come.